Jordan Rolls Southern Family Recipe
This is my personal roll recipe, that I serve whenever an occasion calls for them. They are pretty easy as far as yeast breads go and I hope your family will enjoy them as much as mine does. I especially like to make them whenever I bake a ham, using the leftover rolls and ham to make little sandwiches with the next day.
Recipe Ingredients:
- All purpose flour
- Sugar
- Salt
- Yeast
- Vegetable shortening
- Two eggs
- Melted butter
You’re also going to need some hot water and aren’t we fortunate to be able to just go get that out of the sink?
Lots of folks don’t have such luxuries.
What Kind of Yeast Should I Use?
I don’t like to use packets of yeast because I have the patience of a nervous lizard so I use the jar yeast which can be purchased beside the packets.
This way I just measure it out. The back of the jar will tell you how many teaspoons equal a packet. In this case I’m going to use four and a half teaspoons.
I’m going to just put the packet measurements at the bottom, though, because that is what most people use.
This little jar will keep forever if you put it in your fridge but I usually go through a few each year – at least.
Measure your sugar, salt, 2 cups flour, and yeast into a bowl.
Cut in shortening with a long tined fork.
You can use a fancy pastry cutter if you want to but that’s just one more thing to clutter up my kitchen so I got rid of it years ago.
After you get your shortening cut up in there real good, add your eggs.
Like so.
Flash was on in this picture so if it looks a little whiter that is why.
Beat up your eggs a bit.
I know they didn’t do anything to ya but sometimes things like this happen with no provocation.
Those eggs were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Beat ’em!
And mix them up in there.
Now we add our melted butter. You want to melt this and then give it time to cool so that it isn’t too hot.
A Good Rule of Thumb For The Liquid Ingredients
The thing about yeast breads that is most tricky to folks is getting their liquid ingredients the right temperature. A good rule of thumb that has always served me well has been to make sure liquids are about the temperature as baby’s bath water. Yes, I stick my finger in the melted butter, it doesn’t hurt anyone.
If it’s as warm as a baby’s bath water, but not hot, then it is a great temperature.
Add the remaining flour.
and the water, again making sure the water is the temperature of baby’s bath water.
If you don’t know what temperature a baby’s bath water is then you could always go borrow a dirty baby, I suppose…
Stir that up good.
It’s going to look like a lumpy blob when you’re done.
Cover that with a towel and let it sit for twenty minutes.
After twenty minutes, it’s going to look like an even bigger lumpy blob.
This is good. You have done well, grasshopper.
Now we need to flour a surface and pour our blob out onto it.
I just put out a sheet of waxed paper to save cleanup and sprinkle a good bit of flour over it so my dough doesn’t stick.
You need to knead..
~pauses and reads that again~ That just looks funny…
How To Knead Dough
Okay, so you need to knead your dough a time or two and what I do is just put some flour on your hands, press the dough into a ball, and then smoosh it out with the heel of your hand. Then put it into a ball again and smoosh it out again with the heel of your hand.
Then wonder what crazy person decided to call that part of your hand a heel because that makes no sense at all to me.
From here there are two ways you can go with these rolls.
Okay so in reality there are countless ways you can go with this but I am going to show you the two ways that I use.
I’ll start with my favorite and the less maintenance one.
My favorite Method for Rolls #1
After kneading your dough two or three times, shape it into a rectangle.
If this doesn’t look like a perfect rectangle to you then squint your eyes until it does…
Cut into strips with a pizza cutter.
And then cut cross wise.
I like this method best because it’s easy and ends up yielding larger and smaller rolls which seem to suit company better anyway.
Spray one 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
Arrange in pan and spray tops lightly with cooking spray.
Cover with towel and let rise for twenty minutes.
~~~~~~~~
METHOD 2 For Jordan Rolls
Pat your dough out into a circle, about twelve inches in diameter.
With a pizza cutter, cut the circle into sixteen pieces.
Spray two 9×13 inch pans with cooking spray.
Roll each triangle up beginning on the big end and rolling towards the point.
Like so.
Space them out a bit and put them in two 9×13 pans.
I spray the tops lightly with more cooking spray to have prettier rolls when they are done baking and to help prevent them from sticking in the next step.
Cover with a towel and place in a warm place for another twenty minutes.
note: My oven is not on in this pic.
After twenty minutes, preheat oven (without rolls in it) to 350.
Bake for about twenty five minutes. Brush with melted butter or margarine when done.
Method #1
Method #2
They both look mighty good to me. Imagine breaking them apart and adding some butter inside and just watch it melt as you take a bite.
Ingredients
- 1/2 C solid vegetable shortening
- 1/2 C Sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 pkg fast acting yeast**
- 5 C all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 stick butter melted (plus more for brushing baked rolls with)
- 1 1/2 C warm water like a baby’s bath temperature, this is key with working with yeast
Instructions
- Place sugar, salt, 2 cups of flour, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with a long tined fork.
- Add eggs, beating lightly with fork before stirring them in. Add remaining flour, melted butter, and water. Stir together well. Mixture will look like a big old lumpy blob.
- Cover with a dish towel and let sit in a warm place for twenty minutes.
- After 20 minutes, turn out onto a floured surface. Sprinkle flour over the top and knead three or four times.
- Pat out into a square that is about 3/4 inch thick (or see method #2 above). Cut into squares with a pizza cutter.
- Place in greased 9×13 pan and cover with towel. Let rise another 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until tops are golden.
- Brush hot rolls with additional melted butter.
Notes
Nutrition
You may also like these rolls recipes:
Pizza Rolls! Who wants the weekend off from cooking??
Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls Quick and Easy
“Strength comes from the inside,
but must be fed on the outside to be able to grow.”
-Richard Manintveld
Submitted by his loving wife, Deidra. Submit your quote here. Gain motivation and encouragement here as well.
I want to make rolls for Thanksgiving and I’m debating between the Jordan Rolls and the Preston Rolls. Is there a difference between the two?
How do you measure your flour? I measured it using the “dipping method” that my grandmother taught me…dip into the flour and then pour from the dipper into the measuring cup. I used 5 cups of flour measured that way, and the dough was still very runny. I ended up adding about one more cup (probably more, don’t know, didn’t measure at that point-I just added flour till the dough looked like the consistency in your pictures). They are baking in the oven right now and I think are going to turn out, but want to know for future reference. I LOVE making yeast rolls! Thought I would try something different for a change when I saw the October Southern Living.
What has happened to the print feature?
I finally made your rolls tonight! I have another recipe that I’ve been tinkering with (trying to perfect it) but decided to take a break and make yours tonight. They turned out so yummy! The texture is interesting- very soft and tender, but with bubbles. Yum 🙂 I did skip a step to make it even easier. Kneaded the dough in the big mixing bowl instead of on wax paper, and I pressed the dough out into the greased baking dish and cut it with a pizza cutter in there then kind of spread the rolls apart.
I made your Jordan rolls. They were delicious and so easy compared to other yeast roll recipes. I have been looking for years for a yeast roll recipe you could actually make without half a day involved. This recipe is a keeper. My son loves yeast rolls and I can’t wait for him to come home from basic training to try these. By the way, my son’s name is Jordan ironically.
Just wondering…why are they called ‘Jordan’ rolls?
I baked these and they are good. Mine didn’t brown on the top, could be my old oven…I’m enjoying your website and recipes. God Bless You
I’m so glad you’re here Jeanne, I sure am enjoying your company!
They’re called Jordan rolls for a very complicated and intricate reason ~winks and grins~ Coz that’s my last name 🙂
Bless you as you bless me!
Gratefully,
Christy
When I think of your websiteand recipes I only think of your first name.lol. I kept thinking about the Jordan River in the Bible!
Hey Christy,
My week started off horrible, I lost my job! Fortunately that gave me time to visit with my next door neighbor, my mother, more then usual. We were looking through her new magazines one of which is Southern Living. I started reading your story and then saw your recipe for Jordan Rolls. Well you gave me a great idea which helped my week get better. I drove the half hour up the road picked up my grandson, Jordan, and headed home to make the rolls. I decided to make my husband and just out of the Marines son a nice dinner and surprise them with homemade rolls. Jordan loves to help me bake so he had a great time especially kneading the dough. We all enjoyed them with our ham and beans and then had more with jelly. My husbands mother always had bread or rolls for dinner and eating them the next day cold with jelly is one of his best childhood memories. Thanks for helping my week turn for the better. We will be making these again and again. These are sooo easy even my daughter might be able to make them. Sincerely, Terri